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Yes I did post this over on another forum but wanted to hear the opinions of lovers of mainly 70s gear.
Some of us don't like to actually admit it but I did like some of the 80's stuff.
The only problem with the 80's was finding those hidden gems. Brands that were pioneers and leaders in the audio field in the 60s and 70's were taken over by bean counters and suffered terribly. The second string names from the 70's started to come into there own in the 80's because they had already honed their manufacturing technics on how to make a good sounding cheap mass produced stereo. Names like Marantz and especially Fisher were being crushed by cost cutting pressures.
Following the dizzying list of take overs of these name brands by entities that really didn't care. I think the engineers were literally on a learning curve behind names like Sony.
Some companies put up a good fight. But that was only after they lost their asses like Marantz and took years to rebound.
However names like Fisher were lost to history forever.
What's your view on the decline of that period
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I'd blame a lot of it on the rise of the High End. Until 1980 they all exhibited at the CES or Winter CES shows. Then, they got the bright idea to have a simultaneous show in another nearby hotel, and tag it the High End Show. At the same time they got the magazines, manufacturers and shops together to tout high end. It was around then that the name game started. Patch cords became Interconnects, speaker wire was now Speaker Cable, and higher volume gear was denigrated as Mid-Fi. This followed a similar marketing program in the UK to differentiate the British gear from imports, and it saved the UK manufacturers. The US simply took it a step further.
Jerry
IMHO much 80s music was unfocused and austere, much like the switch to black components in the 80s.
A fair amount of the music of the 60s was very organic. Even in rock you had mixes of folk, simple vocals both male and female, smaller musical studio tracking with virtually little to no over dubbing.
Music was a simpler affair back then. I can see in the 80s it began to be more complicated and less coherent. You would think that you needed MORE detail. But with louder multi tracking and distortion added intentionally - you DON'T! Just loud was good enough.
Fewer classical albums were being sold. And there was an early transition happening. LPs were getting really crappy in quality. I remember I bought a Zepplin album and returned it like five times because they were all warped, "pre scratched" and thin as a wafer. I finally gave up and never bought that recording even to this day.
All my Led Zeppelin records are flat thick and quiet. But then they are early pressings that were bought for a dollar at thrift stores. CD was the best thing that ever happened to my record collection! It was slim pickings for good sounding 80's records, bu they did exist. Peter Gabriel, Eric Clapton, Frank Zappa and Dire Straights are a few that I can think of of hand that were putting out great sounding records in the 80's. Reissues were among the worst of the pack, and don't ever buy an RCA Gold series classical record. No matter how good the original recording, the Gold series will suck in every way possible.Dave
Edits: 08/28/16
The major name brands decided that they needed to sell more of their equipment so they went after the mass market. After making a name for themselves they thought they could sell their stuff on name alone. So they started producing equipment with plastic face plates and knobs, cheap sheet metal chassis and such. To me most of this stuff was junk. I chuckle when on forums (not this one) and some one finds an eighties piece and they yells score! Usually they weren't around when the good stuff was made.
Greetings from Sactown once again, Charles. Only 70s gear in main audio arsenal nowadaze is Sansui 5000x, used for rear channel amplification (into 80s-era Sansui speaker cabs loaded with 70s-era Utah Cadences), & Dual 504 turntable, with 80s-era Shure V-15 Type IV hyper-elliptical-n-micro-ridge cartridges. After bein' seduced by Carver CT-17 preamp, am lovin' modded 80s-era Kenwood KC-208 for its tonal variety. Aurally assisted by modded Pioneer RG-9 Dynamic Processor, which was designed by late great engineer Robert Grodinsky. And replaces long-beloved dbx 118, another 70s relic which served faithfully for nearly four decades. ... '77 Ibanez Les Paul Custom copy still rocks 80s-era Dimarzio PAF (pre 35th Anniversary) & PAF Pro pups, & '64 Fender Jag loves versatility of 80s-era Dimarzio HS-3 pups. ... Yeah, manufacturers cheapened audio gear in the 80s, & some parts were under-speced. Nor were they works of art, like 70s gear. But some 80s-era gear can hang with their 70s cousins, via judicious modding of course. Heck, Sony's venerable ICF-2010 came out in the mid 80s & is still considered classique. Although there aren't as many international broadcasters on shortwave nowadaze, but there are still plenty of ham-n-utility stations. And, as much as moi loves Celestion's V30s & Mesa's MC-90s (which are 80s relics), have recently become smitten by Celestion's G12K-85 (badged G12K-100 nowadaze). An 80s-era speaker which rocked plenty of Peavey's metal monsters, yet has a wide-yet-tight tonal spectrum. 73s para Sactown
I do remember watching the quality of Yamaha's receivers steadily decline through the 80's, but the integrated amps and tuners did not see a big decline. Yamaha did make some excellent separates and CD players. Their TOL was still great stuff. Denon did a much better job maintaining there quality, and I still recommend their 80's gear. It was a travesty what happened to Luxman. However, the Sony ES stuff was very good (IMO).
There were lots of great speakers in the 80's. Too many to list. I will have to take you word on the guitar stuff. I know very little about it.
Dave
80's- what a great time for high end- some companies benefited from rolling around in the late 70's and perfected their designs.
American specialist manufacturers ruled with computer technology trickling down for CAD and circuit design and hard lessons learned while materials science became very sophisticated yet affordable.
Acoustat
Classe
Audio Research
Vandersteen
Oracle
Counterpoint
Krell
CJ
Spectral
NYAL
Beveridge
Martin Logan
Rowland
Forsell
etc.... etc....
Probably one of the most prolific times for "high end" audio that was just about in reach of ordinary folks.
70's was largely mass market Japanese.
Today, the android and iOS devices takeover for cheap entertainment as the numbers out of the artisan factories flounders manufacturers get desperate and add 2" thick faceplates with gold engraving for the rich overseas markets with little relationship to performance.
The days of affordable high performance audio are virtually over as mediocrity takes over, old folks hang on to vintage memories, dealers get eaten by the 2nd hand web market and money congregates in Asian and other Eastern Markets leading to increasingly unaffordable bling.
1980s good times!
It's when I started to buy all the stuff that the high end audio snobs would laugh at.I would be buying Dynaco ST70s and Mk3s for 50usd to 75usd each,,,Mac 60s I was buying for 350 for my first pair from a GM shop rat.He throw in two Dyna ST70s and a Mac C24 with no glass for good measure.
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong" H. L. Mencken
This is a good list. To it I would add Audionics, Linn, Naim, and NAD, but of course there were others.
What happened is that the Eighties weren't the Seventies, the worst decade of the second half of the 20th century. Bad economy, bad government,bad music, bad clothes, bad hair, bad cars,bad drug and crime problems, etc. Just a real waste, most of it.
Bad car? My 86 Mustang GT, with its fuel-injected 5.0 Liter/ 5-speed and T-tops, was a blast to drive. Cameros, Corvettes and Turbo Regals were quite nice too!
Dave
I was thinking of the Plymouth Barracuda I owned after graduating from college. Hideous car.
True enough on the era for economy, hair and politics.
I got out of university in the late 80s and went through 2 recessions in 4 years after school. I was born about 10 years to late to be able to afford the stuff in the 80s that was considered SOTA- too young.
Now as I'm able to afford things... high end has gotten stratospheric. You used to be able to , if you saved your pennies, afford TOTL ARC for instance, now it a bit of a joke, more like buying a Range Rover.
The good news is the internet is the great equalizer and good used equipment is easy to source now. Dealers who add little value - other than place the order for a not on display piece of equipment are cast aside - good riddance. There used to be a plethora of good dealers that stocked high end and added value. Now they are few and far between , take your money for simply taking the order.
I have spent many many many tens of thousands of $ at dealers - save for one -they are mostly happy to take your money and run. Unfortunately, the best dealer nearby me- the principle passed away and now is a shell of what it was.
Lack of good dealers, web based economy and the cash drain to taxes and erosion of the middle class buying power = very little velocity in this category for North America.
More........
How about,
Dayton Wright, SOTA turntables, Bedini, Electrocompaniet, Syrinx, Goldmund turntables ( surprisingly affordable compared to todays offerings) etc. cool stuff back then ..
Not for moi. I'm quite fond of stuff introduced in the 80s! Here's my rig circa 1985:Ariston Audio RD-11s turntable (ok, that's really 70s vintage)
Souther TQ-1 linear arm
Shinon Red Boron MC cartridge
VPI HW-1 turntable base
VPI HW-16 record cleaning machineSide note: Still have all of the above
Audio Research SP-6C1 preamp (not visible)
Threshold Stasis 3 amp
Acoustat 2+2 Red Medallion electrostats
Esoteric Audio "Air Litz" interconnects
Edits: 08/22/16
The '80s were an interesting period of transition-
The big names from the '60s & '70s were - as you aptly put - getting kicked in the but-
Marquees like McIntosh was adoption the SS wave and push-button features-
Mid Fi was falling to a lower common denominator chasing a market with limited $$$, and yet this was also the time that the High End was starting to gain some traction and differentiate itself-
Thorens was still putting out decent tables, Linn was gaining in reputation and standing, Alphason and Oracle were providing some alternatives along with SOTA and VPI. There were still higher end models from the big Japanese companies and a few small American companies- ARC, C-J, Music Reference, MFA, Audible Illusions, Counterpoint, Quicksilver Jeff Rowland, Threshold and Mark Levinson. Speakers were also undergoing a big change - Apogee and Wilson come to mind-
Cassette tape was Big and the CD was just coming onto the market...
an interesting time to say the least-
Happy Listening
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